HM Inspectorate of Constabulary Reports on Gun Licensing

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The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) welcomed the report Targeting the risk – An inspection of the efficiency and effectiveness of firearms licensing in police forces in England and Wales, published today (15 September) by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).

The NGO said the report had confirmed its long held view that the administration of firearms licensing was staggeringly varied, almost a postcode lottery: good in a few places but appallingly bad in others.

An NGO Spokesman said: “The emphasis in the report is rightly on the potential consequences of that very varied performance for public safety but that aspect, crucial though it is, must not overshadowthe chaotic administration of the current system that also affects thousands of legitimate gun owners week in week out. These are stakeholders who pay good money for a so-called service that is, in some constabularies, described by HMIC as being completely unacceptable.

“We provided pages of advice and evidence to the enquiry and were represented on its External Reference Group, so it is good to see that many of our concerns – about the varied performance of different forces, departures from the Home Office Guidance and the absence of any national training for administrators – have all been picked up in the report.

“Most of the HMIC recommendations we wholeheartedly support as being designed to make the current system work as it should do but never has. But if the timetable for improvements that the report sets is to be met, there is a great deal for Chief Constables to put in place in the next three months. We shall be watching closely to see what is achieved. The almost total failure to implement the last two HMIC reports on firearms licensing (1993 and 2002) is in many ways responsible for the current debacle.

“We are less enthusiastic about some of the other HMIC recommendations, such as the call for mandatory medical reports before each grant and renewal. Have GPs got the time to do them, who will pay and what happens if someone’s GP is opposed to shooting and declines to provide a report? These are all big questions, currently without answers, and we will be using our seat on the ongoing Home Office Medical Evidence Working Group to fight for workable solutions that are both fit for purpose and fair to gun users.”

Notes to Editors

ENDS